Vos slams Kasich for crossing GOP on maps
MADISON – Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos acknowledged confronting Ohio Gov. John Kasich this fall for getting involved in a federal lawsuit over Wisconsin’s legislative district lines.
In a Thursday news conference, Vos, a Republican from Rochester, didn’t deny swearing at Kasich over the governor’s decision to back Democratic plaintiffs from Wisconsin who are seeking to strike down Assembly maps drawn by Vos and other GOP lawmakers. Vos said Kasich didn’t back down.
“Have you met John Kasich? I think he relishes in the fact of somehow being this, you know — I don’t know what you want to call it. He just relishes in the fact of how he operates. All I wanted to do is make sure he understood there are realworld consequences for the decisions that he makes. Whether he wants to run for president and step on somebody else along the way, that’s up to him,” Vos said, referring to speculation that Kasich might mount a primary challenge to President Donald Trump.
“He can characterize it however he wants,” Vos said of the report that he swore at Kasich.
A spokesman for Kasich didn’t respond immediately to requests for comment.
The U.S. Supreme Court is considering a legal challenge to the legislative district lines that GOP lawmakers and Gov. Scott Walker approved in 2011.
The justices heard the case Oct. 3 and are expected to make a ruling by next year — in time for the 2018 elections.
Most Republicans have defended the Wisconsin maps, but a few have agreed with Democrats in saying that the Supreme Court should limit how much politicians can do to draw maps benefiting their party.
Those Republicans include Kasich, U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, 1996 presidential nominee Bob Dole, former Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana and Rep. Mark Meadows of North Carolina, the chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus.
In a lengthy profile of Kasich, New York Magazine first disclosed the confrontation between Vos and Kasich this fall at an event for statehouse speakers in Ohio. The magazine reported that Vos “amicably approached the (Ohio) governor and then swore at him for adding his name” to the legal brief critical of gerrymandering.
“They had a heated exchange in which Vos accused Kasich of betraying his party,” the magazine reported.
Speaking ahead of a Thursday floor session in the Wisconsin Capitol, Vos said he didn’t think he “used those exact words.”
“But it might have been his (inference) from the standpoint that if you’re going to do something that has an impact on one side of the aisle that you happen to be associated with, then you need to talk to people who are actually involved in the process. That’s what I said,” Vos said.